


Glitter and Glue

by PineappleMystery



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, M/M, bullymagnet - Freeform, happy valentines day in april lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 07:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10657899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineappleMystery/pseuds/PineappleMystery
Summary: It's Valentine's day, and Max is as oblivious as ever.Johnny thinks it's really cute.





	Glitter and Glue

**Author's Note:**

> um, unbeta'd and also like two months late so. 
> 
> enjoy?

Johnny Jhonny half-stood half-crouched at the end of a school hallway using the ancient water fountain that only worked the last Tuesday of every month, or for those wearing parsley green socks, as cover for his super secret stealth reconnaissance mission. He stared at Max as he tried to kick open his locker that afternoon. The final class of the day was about to begin and with it, his last chance to talk to the new kid.

The new kid, one Maxwell Puckett, would argue the title of ‘new kid’ was stupid, as he had been going to the school for several months at this point, and was well acquainted to the small town and its strange townsfolk. He had many friends and strangers used to his presence like he had lived in Mayview all his life. No one else considered the cynical 12 year old to be a new kid anymore except Johnny, who used the title like an affectionately annoying nickname for Max.

Max finally opened his locker, sans kicking. He reached for his backpack but stopped when he saw the state his locker was in. All of his things were just as he left them, but now they were covered in colorful folded pieces of paper and card stock, along with a few crushed flowers from persons unknown forcing them into the small openings on the door. He was dumbfounded, and picked up a pitiful looking daisy in confusion. Why were people shoving flowers into his locker?!

Johnny, watching from afar, was nervous. In his hand he held a clumsily made letter, red glitter glue and pink maker still smudged on his finger tips and elbows from an hour before. Mr. Starchman was not happy that he turned his English class into an art class again, but at least he made it out of there with his project intact. _That man can do horrible, horrible things with a pool noodle_ , he thought while shuddering.

But now, watching Max stare at the dozens of similar cards lining his locker, he just wanted to tear his letter up and throw it away. Who knew that other kids had given similar gifts to that nerd? And at least one of them had to be cooler than his, or Max would read one and it would be from that weird kid with the ramp hair that Max hung out with and as unlikely as it was he would swoon and forget all about Johnny and his friends and would never talk to him again and-

Max was still staring at a daisy and then his locker in confusion, like he didn’t know what any of it was. As Johnny secretly watched, his worries over not being Max’s friend anymore was replaced with amusement.

Max probably _didn’t_ know what was going on, Johnny considered. The kid was about as observant as a piece of string when he choose to be, and he looked so honestly dumbfounded that Johnny couldn’t help but snicker at his expression.

Max’s head whipped around when he heard the chuckles, the acoustics of the hallway and lack of other students carrying the sound loud and clear. He saw Johnny in his hiding spot behind the infamously disgusting water fountain on the second floor. His eyes narrowed, and the poor little flower was crushed in his fist.

He stalked over to the red head, who was trying to pretend Max hadn't seen him by pressing himself into the rusty machine. He hastily crammed the sensitive letter into his pocket, desperate to keep it hidden until he was ready to give it to the other boy. Max’s shadow fell over him, and he slowly looked up from his frantic tussle with trepidation. He was standing there, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised. Johnny started to sweat nervously, though he knew he had done nothing wrong. Well, yet.

“Well?” Max asked.

“Uh, what?” Johnny responded, trying and failing to play it cool while half lying on the dirty floor.

Max sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyed. “Why did you trash my locker?”

“I didn’t do that.”

He threw his arms into the air, exasperated at his friend’s wild antics. “You put all that stuff in my locker, didn’t you?! Why did you do that?!”

Man, Max sure is dumb, thought Johnny. He thought the cards and flowers and candy was trash? Did he even know what day it was?

“Max,” Johnny said slowly, “I didn’t put that stuff in your locker. And it’s not trash. Well I bet most of it is, but that’s not the point.”

Max still held the daisy in his fist, and looked down at it with incredulity. He looked back at Johnny. “Then what is the point?”

Johnny lazily stood up, absently wiping off the the dirt and god-knows-what off his pants with little success. He wasn’t worried about that at the moment. “The point,” he explained carefully, “is that it is Valentine's Day, Max.”

The other boy stared at him. “what.” was all he said, before looking down at the little white flower. He spent a good three seconds staring blankly at the petals and said nothing. He then looked up and around the hallway, somehow just now noticing all the red and pink decorations covering every square inch of wall space. He looked like a deer in headlights, staring at a big and sloppily made poster advertising the holiday directly to his right. Johnny, worried he’d somehow broken the other boy, was about to offer to burn the various cards and flowers when he realized that Max was blushing. _Oh no_ , Johnny though helplessly.

Max was embarrassed, and could not control his blushing when the information finally sunk in. He didn’t like Valentine’s Day, at all. It was annoying and everyone got all sappy and everything was covered in red, white, and pink hearts. He didn’t like it because he’d never gotten gifts or valentines from anyone before, he had, but he just didn’t care. He’d always been prepared to let those kids down before they’d approach him, though. Back in Baxbrough, word traveled fast, especially word about crushes, so he’d had the advantage. But here he hadn’t heard about or noticed anyone having a crush on him and it caught him off-guard. And then there was the fact that there was _so many of them_ _._ Or the gifts could all be from one person and they were kind of obsessed with him, and in that case he’d just have to move again as soon as possible.

But really, he shouldn’t be this embarrassed by any of it. He had a cool brooding loner persona to maintain! And yet here he was, holding a flower and standing in front of the school bully who he caught spying on him and just now realizing... that it was... Valentine's Day...

Wait a minute.

Max turned back to Johnny, his face still red but now full of suspicion and apprehension.

“So...” he questioned, gesturing to Johnny and opening his mouth to continue his line of questioning.

“Um,” Johnny interrupted. His face was red as well, but he clung to his calm, cool guy facade. “Uh, yeah, so. It’s Valentine's Day. That’s the date. I mean! That’s what day it is! Today’s February 14th, yup. That is today.”

 _Smooth_.

Johnny bounced on the balls of his feet, suddenly anxious from Max’s comically over-scrutinizing gaze. He wasn’t prepared for all this attention from the other boy and it was really frying his nerves, and if he wasn’t careful, it wouldn’t be the only thing to get fried. Max finally relented after what felt like an eternity.

Max then grinned a devilish grin before schooling his face into a neutral expression, bringing the flower up to his eyes. Johnny might have swooned a little.

Max twiddled the little daisy between his fingers, faking nonchalance as he asked, “Say, Johnny. Johnny Jhonny. J-boy.”

 _Oh no_.

Max dropped his hand away from his face and looked Johnny straight in the eye. His cheeks held leftover pink from his earlier embarrassment, but his eyes shone clear with determination. “Why were you watching me at my locker? You said that you didn’t put anything in it, but... Well...” He tapped his chin, fake contemplating. Max knew why he was hiding here, or at least suspected it, Johnny realized, but he wanted to hear it from Johnny himself.

He snapped his fingers, “I think you did put something in my locker, or you were going to. Right?”

Oh, Johnny was sweating bullets now. Max was right, of course, but the love confession letter was hidden away in his pocket. Johnny Jhonny wasn’t a coward, however all his instincts were telling him to run away as fast as possible and face this crush confession business another day. And he would have ran away too, if Max hadn’t backed him into a figurative, and literal, corner. The dirty metal of the water fountain was digging into his back.

Max’s stare was piercing, but he was also blushing more and more each second.

“Well?” he asked, voice cracking. Max was just as embarrassed about the whole thing as he was, he knew. No, there was no way out of this now. It wasn’t how he had wanted to give the letter to him, but it was now or never. And Johnny never backed away from a challenge.

Johnny smiled at Max, a little scared, but decisive.

“I was,” he said, “I mean, I was going to put this in your locker,” Johnny fished around in his pocket until he found the letter he had made for Max. “So. Here.”

He looked away as he handed it over to the other boy. When he took it he looked up, shyly meeting Max’s wide eyes. Max started to read the letter, dumbstruck. He looked at Johnny, then the letter, then back again, mouth opening and closing.

Max knew that Johnny was up to something when he saw him hiding behind the water fountain, but he didn’t think Johnny _liked_ him, that that something he was up to was giving him a _freaking homemade love letter_. On Valentine’s Day. Which was today, apparently.

Sometimes he hated how oblivious he could be.

“Happy Valentine's Day, Max.” Johnny said softly, a tiny smile on his face. With that he turned to go, proud of himself. Max knew about his crush on him. All that was left to do was head to class, and hope that this didn’t change things between them too much. Mission accomplished.

“Hey, wait!”

He carefully turned back to Max, hands in his pockets. “Yeah?”

Max had dropped the little daisy in favor of clutching Johnny’s letter close to his face, ears and nose bright red. He didn’t meet Johnny’s eyes, but the redhead could see the big smile he was trying to hide behind the crumpled paper and smeared glitter glue.

“Oh.” Johnny said, before smiling too. Max was just too cute sometimes, he thought distractedly.

“Um,” Max finally said, clearing his throat, “after school, do you um, do you want to help me get rid of all that stuff?” He pointed his thumb back to his locker, uncovering his face and meeting Johnny’s eyes, smiling shyly at him.

Johnny all but shouted, vibrating with joy, “You bet!” He then he clapped Max on the shoulder, the other boy letting out an ‘oof’ from the force. “I’ll met you by your locker after school, okay?” Johnny grinned goofily at Max’s soft laugh, then turned, waved, and headed to his class, a skip in his step and a permanently wide grin on his red face. Max watched him go before rereading the short letter. He chuckled.

“Hey Johnny!” He shouted after him, “learn to spell you dork!”

Johnny’s rambunctious laugh echoed down the hallway, and Max spared himself a second to bask in a happy glow before turning back to his open locker. He made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat at his now glue and glitter covered hands.

There looked to be a few more gifts in his locker than just a few minutes before, and he shook his head. All the hard work those poor kids had done was probably for nothing, as Johnny would burn everything up and then some. He didn’t really care. The only gift he cared about was put carefully in his bag before he grabbed his things and shut his locker. As he ran down the nearly empty hallways to last class he smiled again.

He didn’t really know why he asked Johnny to help him get rid of all the valentine's crap, but he didn’t care to know why. The nervous flutters in his stomach at the thought of him and Johnny hanging out later was enough of a clue, anyway, despite how dense he could be.

Maybe Valentine’s Day wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
